Formula One has no clothes on.

Remember that fable about the Emperor's New Clothes?

Two con men posing as tailors showed up in a kingdom and said that they would make the emperor the finest set of clothes anybody had ever seen. In fact, the clothes would be so incredible that they would be invisible to all but the most sophisticated and high-class people. Naturally the clothes would be costly, and the tailors demanded plenty of money, the finest silks and gold thread, all of which disappeared into their bags.

For weeks the tailors pretended to sew the imaginary clothes. They would hold up nothing for inspection and everybody, not wanting to admit they didn't see anything and were therefore not part of the elite crowd, would say how fabulous they looked.

Finally the day came for the emperor to wear the grand clothes in a grand parade. His servants pretended to dress him, and he didn't want to admit either that he didn't see any actual clothes. After all, to admit that you couldn't see the clothes was to admit that you were stupid. He mounted his horse and paraded through the city naked while the people praised his amazing outfit.

And then one little child piped up and said: "But he has nothing on!"

Formula One has reached a point where it has no clothes on. But because this is Formula One, the most elite form of motor sport, people turn a blind eye.

"This is Formula One," they say, "all is perfect and beautiful!"

"You don't like the way things are in Formula One?" they ask. "Well, you must be a idiot. How can you not appreciate this cool and sophisticated and historic sport that has such incredible TV ratings and draws such huge crowds to the races?"

But the truth of the matter is that Formula One has no clothes on. It is getting too costly and the races are getting dull. Something MUST be done.

	Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari team dominated the 2002 Formula One season.

And the first thing is to ignore the snobs who say there is nothing wrong with Formula One in its current state.

At this point I want to stress that I am passionate about Formula One. I've been fascinated with the sport since my father took a bunch of us neighborhood kids to see our first grand prix in 1969. Since then I have attended nearly 300 Grand Prix weekends both as a fan and as a journalist, and I've only missed one grand prix since 1988.

But much as I love Formula One I can also admit that it has its flaws. Formula One cannot be so arrogant as to ignore its fans.

Friends of mine who are hard-core Formula One fans have been turning their TVs off and not attending races that they usually do. Indeed, TV figures slipped in some countries this year. So did attendance figures.

"I just don't get Bernie (Ecclestone) and the FIA," one Formula One fan said to me recently. "Narrow-track cars, grooved tires, emasculated circuits, bankrupt teams, regulations that keep talented guys like (2001 F3000 champion Justin) Wilson out of seats, etc. They must think that the worldwide public is Pavlov's dogs, ready to salivate any time F1 is mentioned even if the product is rancid. The mentality is stunning. If this is progress, call me a confirmed old-fashioned F1 fan. My interest in the sport has eroded considerably this year."

And now, finally, some members of the Formula One fraternity are waking up to the fact that something needs to be done. FIA president Max Mosley has circulated a letter with nine ideas for change. The ideas, which have been covered in detail elsewhere on ESPN.com's RPM, range from the absurd to the feasible. What they really are is a starting point to goad the teams into action. Mosley has warned them that changes WILL be made one way or another.

There is a huge range of issues that need to be looked at. Here are my ideas on some of them.

Ferrari

	Schumacher

The Italian Grand Prix, in the heart of Ferrari country, drew 60,000 fans this year compared to 90,000 last year. Even the passionate Italian fans were getting weary of seeing Ferrari and Michael Schumacher win.

It's not Ferrari's fault that they dominated this season. The blame there lies squarely with the other top teams, namely Williams BMW and McLaren Mercedes, who didn't create cars competitive enough to challenge the cars from Maranello.

To their credit, team bosses Frank Williams and Ron Dennis don't whine for a sudden NASCAR-like rule change to make their cars more competitive or to slow down the Ferraris. Williams and McLaren, they say, didn't do a good enough job this year and must try to improve for next season.

Where Ferrari did upset people was with the team's narrow win at all costs view.

"Ferrari should have a think about their obligations to the public rather than their obligations to Michael Schumacher," said Williams Technical Director Patrick Head after the infamous Austrian Grand Prix where the Ferrari bosses ordered Rubens Barrichello to move over and let Schumacher win.

Let the Ferrari teammates race, said the fans. People remember the 1988 season when McLaren won 15 of 16 races but let its drivers Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna compete without team orders.

But even if Ferrari had not issued team orders in 2002, the only race that Barrichello could probably have won would have been in Austria. True, Barrichello won in Hungary and Italy and the Nurburgring, but Schumacher was taking it easy at those races. And Barrichello won at Indianapolis only because Schumacher botched the finish.

The solution would be to have a top rated driver like Juan Pablo Montoya or Kimi Raikkonen as Schumacher's teammate. But guys like that would never drive for a team where Schumacher gets the priority number one treatment.

Aerodynamics
Even if you take Ferrari out of the picture, Formula One still needs sprucing up. The recent Japanese Grand Prix was a good example with the Williams and McLarens droning by at well-spaced intervals.

Such is the state of Formula One aerodynamic packages these days that it is hard to get close to the car in front of you in the corners. Montoya said in Japan that as soon as he got within three car lengths of a car in front he lost so much downforce that he had to back off. If you can't get close to a car in the turns you can't be right behind it as you get on a straight where you could draft by and make a pass.

Aerodynamic downforce should be drastically slashed. The cars should have to rely on mechanical grip not aerodynamic grip.

Proof that the aerodynamic issue is getting out of hand can be seen at Ferrari which runs three wind tunnels 24 hours a day. If you want to cut costs, at least limit the teams to a single wind tunnel or to how much time they can spend in a wind tunnel.

Among the ideas put forth by the FIA is limiting the teams to two sets of bodywork per half season. It's a good idea because it would prevent the teams spending hundreds of thousands of dollars tweaking bodywork in the wind tunnel to gain a fraction of a second on the track.

Share the wealth
To help the smaller teams, share the wealth. The current system awards the most successful teams with the largest chunk of the TV money. Why not split the money evenly between all the teams? It would make a huge difference to the smaller teams if they could get the extra income.

Television
Some of the best action on the track never gets seen on TV or, more accurately, on the network/cable coverage of the races. Each country hosting a grand prix provides the TV coverage seen the world over. The quality of the coverage is sporadic and often downright rotten. Bernie Ecclestone sends his own TV network at every Grand Prix to create and send the pay-for-view digital coverage available in limited markets in Europe.

The digital coverage is superb and far superior to what the rest of the world sees. Viewers in America got a sample of the digital coverage in the four Grand Prix races ABC televised this year as Ecclestone made it available to that network.

The digital coverage should be available to all the stations covering Formula One. It would definitely make the racing more interesting for the viewing public.

The crossroads
FIA president Max Mosley is right when he says Formula One is at a crossroads. Don't make any changes, the purists say, Formula One will fix itself. I consider myself a Formula One purist. I agree that Formula One should never become like NASCAR with constant rule tweaks to try and even out the field.

But if changes are not made, Formula One is going to start losing its fan base on a permanent basis.

The meeting
Team owner Frank Williams is right when he calls the upcoming meeting of the Formula One Commission on October 29 the most crucial meeting in two decades for Formula One. The commission is comprised of a variety of members including the teams, the sponsors, race promoters, engine manufacturers, the FIA and Ecclestone. They will decide the future of Formula One.

Extreme caution is needed because we don't want knee jerk reactions that will destroy the integrity of Formula One.

But if Formula One doesn't make any changes it will price the small teams out of business -- something that is already happening. And changes need to be made to spice up the show without ruining the core purity of Formula One.

Is that going to be difficult to do? Of course it is. But Formula One prides itself as having some of the finest brains in the business. Surely they can come up with viable solutions.

The powers that be have to realize that Formula One has no clothes on. And to do little or nothing will leave the sport parading oblivious and naked down the street.

Dan Knutson covers Formula One for National Speed Sport News.